philipnz

And you must do 35 hours solo before you can take a passenger. The 40 hours is more like 50, so by the time you are free to go unrestricted you have invariably done around 70 hours Looking at the chart crezzi posted, on the face of it they look quite similar but I think in NZ you cannot be PIC while flying with an instructor, I may be wrong. So only solo time counts towards your passenger rating.

I popped a tyre a couple of months back. I suspect it was taxiing back to the hangar however as I didn't notice anything different on landing. Was a pain tho

I've made one downwind landing. I arrived back at Ardmore airport one evening and the active runway (unicom service) was 03 despite the wind being a 12 knot tailwind. Another arriving aircraft queried the runway and was told due to sever glare issues with the setting sun 03 was it. Fair enough too as the sun/glare was terrible. But touching down with a 12 knot tail wind was an eye opener as I hit the ground running. I mentioned it to my instructor and he thought it should be added to the sylabus as sometimes you may be required to do it.

I've only been flying 18 months but i've sailed competitively for over 40 years. From pretty much every dinghy class in NZ to Keelboats and for the last 12 years multihulls. Here's me at 12 and my darling. website - www.sundreamer.co.nz [/img]

I maybe gliding over the fence but almost always have a little bit of power on to give me elevator authority in the flare. I keep the airspeed right on 55 knots (as per the POH)

Was that the Motueka trike pilot or the Westport chap this weekend?

Zaon Flight Systems - Home I have the XRX and it's very good. Discussions for an agaisnt have been done to death here and on pprune. Could I live without it? Yes, it does not replace a good lookout and radio use. Do I want to live without it? No it is a valuable tool in avoiding collisions and any significant aid is worth the price to me It relys on all aircraft having their transponders turned on and within interrogation range of a radar facility. You need to check your environment suits

I'm not involved in this firm in any way, just a very happy recent customer. Here's a picture of it fitted to my Remos although it fits practically any highwing light aircraft and any other info you may need is on their site www.planetent.net

I started flying at 48. I have a younger wife with a 10 year old son that means the world to both of us, her especially as I have other children. My son flies with me on every occasion he can. My wife isn't so keen. One day I half-teased "you don't trust me!!" She replied instantly "if i didn't trust you then Anthony wouldn't be flying with you" You can be too hard on yourself. Respect peoples faith in you. XXXX happens but it doesn't have to happen to you.

CZAW have evidently been taken over by their financiers. The new company making them is here. http://www.czechsportaircraft.com/sportcruiser.html Sounds like a right kerfluffle. I know a guy that has been waiting on parts to repair accident damage since November and they won't even speak to him.

Remos G-3 600 Top - Zaon XRX Left - MP3/FM, CSU, Flydat, ASI, AH, AI, SI, ELT, VSI Middle - GPS, VHF, Mode S Txp, Intercom, Compass, Trim and Prop Indicators Switchgear, Throttle, Choke, Carb Heat, Heater, Fresh Air. Right - Manifold/Outside Temp, Clock, Manifold Pressure, Volts, Fuel, Fuel Pressure

Rectangular. I've got used to selecting 15 degree flaps on downwind 40 on base. I prefer not to move flaps while i'm turning so that makes me keep straight. Plus where I fly it's really busy and it's so much easier to keep an eye on aircraft if they are flying straight lines.

I pondered over this for weeks. I went flying with a guy that built his own zodiac and he had a car radio in it. He said if he was doing it again he'd just use an mp3 player. So i ended up just getting a small mp3 player that velcro's on the panel with a socket into the intercom. Just load up your favourite songs for 17 hours battery life. Mine also has an fm radio that works well. It's a Samsung.

I want a set of them!!!

Please let us know how you go in the sportcruiser and how you found it compared to the jab

Not really forward stick but certainly make sure you aren't holding it back any. I only like forward stick when i've got more than 500 feet between the nosewheel and the ground. ;) But that's only where the nosewheel is steerable. In the sportcruiser it's castoring so wont contribute to directional control.

Took me quite a while to be able to handle torque turn on takeoff. I was always fine from a standing start but on touch and go's I was a weapon and twice had lucky escapes departing the fairway into the rough on one occasion severly enough to buckle the rim of the nosewheel. I'd figured it out before I got my own aircraft. Turned out one of my main issues was not easing the stick forward enough after the landing sequence before I put on the power to put a bit more load on the nose wheel. That and a little more right pedal.

Theres a very good dvd you can get on Rotax engines, worth a look. Basically it's this. You turn the engine over by hand to check the oil before flight. The engine by default will be cold. If the ignition is off you can't start it. If the ignition for some silly reason or faulty switch is on then you will have to spin the engine 300 rpm to start it which is very very unlikely. Honestly you'd have to be absolutely committed to giving the prop the biggest heave you could muster. You don't check the oil in a hot engine after flight because A) the oil is hot and expanded and if it was all in the tank it would overread and B) you wont get all the oil in the tank because all a lot of it is still hung up in the moving bits. It takes a while, ie the period between flights, for it all to filter down to the sump where it is all scavenged by pulling through the prop when cold. C) you have to remove the cap to get to the dipstick and doing this on a hot engine could remove your eyelashes or at least burn your fingers I always leave my anti collision strobe turned on. In fact i'd hard wire it to the master switch if i could. That way you always know the ignition is on when you're outside the aircraft. But as said, you aren't going to start the engine anyway. Sometimes when I land and shutdown I'll have to return the prop to horizontal. I may turn the prop backwards to do this (less than an eight of a turn maximun) or very carefully and very slowly standing to the side bring it around.

Because it's in the engine operation manual. You need no other reason. Furthermore the manual makes no mention of fingers being lost, you will never wind a Rotax over fast enough by hand to activate the magneto's. Nor does it mention winding over a just-shut-down hot engine to check the oil. I can't believe people are suggesting you shouldn't.

I have a little issue that bugs me. I fly out of NZ's busiest airport, Ardmore in a Remos G-3. Now there's only 2 of them in NZ so describing myself as a Remos is going to mean tiddley squat for anyone looking out for me. I usually describe myself as a microlight but that could really be anything from a sportcruiser to a bantam and i'm quite capable of being in the circuit with anything local, performance wise, I don't need babysitting Jabiru's and Tecnams probably have the numbers to identify themselves but what do some of you other guys that fly lesser known aircraft call?

Call me old fashioned but I much prefer the steam gauges. You have to have them anyway. Whether mandatory or not you'd be foolish to rely totally on anything solely electronic. Cars used to have lots of gauges, then around the 70's early 80's those ghasty electronic dashboards arrived with bright yellow and orange flashing bar graphs. Now you see all the sexiest cars have lovely gauges again, not an LED in sight hardly. Thats where MY heart lies. I had the choice when I order my new LSA last year to have the glass but it just didn't grab me. I don't like computer games/sims either.

As Pete and Tony say there are already any number of good aircraft available that fit the rules. My Remos weighs 320kg empty. Two decent sized crew are 160kg and a bit of baggage 20kg. I opted for a smaller fuel tank 68 litre (50kg) and more baggage carrying capacity as I like to leave the tanks full after every flight to save time next time and reduce condensation in the tanks. These decisions were based around the rules at the time 544kg for microlight and upcoming 600kg. And fit in easily for both But then someone wants a BIG aircraft with selling points of 3 days endurance and storage space for Mrs Marcos's shoes collection. They design it so close to the weight limit that you have to break the rules every time you go flying. Then they push for an increase in the limit. But if you raise the limit people will still design their aircraft too close to the limit to carry a reasonable load to out-do the competition for features. They will add an icemaker and pop-out scooters. A Cessna 150 has a useful load under a MAUW 730kg of 220kg. Recreational use of them will only lead to overloading at a higher level

I was reading a review of the sportcruiser in a UK pilot magazine. I've seen a few of the NZ ones and they look great, a very big aircraft with lots of storage. I have some issues with the specs on them however. The NZ agent lists the empty weight as 307kg, the manufacturer lists the empty weight as 330kg but the review said that with all the usual ad-ons the weight was 350kg before BRS (17kg) and a few other options. The 350kg was also without the constant speed prop. Fuel capacity is 117 litres (78kg) So 544kg less 350kg less 78kg leaves only 116kg for occupants and luggage inder NZ microlight rules and even under the LSA rules when they come in 172kg. It would seem the aircraft is being flown illegally much of the time.

Hi Brian I fly out of Ardmore, NZ's busiest airport in a highwing LSA so I like the idea of having a graphical directional representation in front of me to assist my lookout. The unit is permanently installed. To be honest I never saw the MRX model. I was shopping for a bluetooth interface and saw the XRX on display. It seemed like a good idea and a better use for my fun vouchers than taking phone calls

I just bought a XRX last week. Haven't been flying with it yet but the respected dealer gave it a glowing report and it certainly worked even in the hangar. I was watching the runway/taxiways and listening to the radio and it was picking up everything that I saw plus the radio traffic.